The True Centre
The True Centre
"Thus says the Lord God, 'This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the centre of the nations, with lands (the earth) around her.'" (Ezekiel 5.5)
So far as God Almighty is concerned, the city of Jerusalem in Israel is the centre of this His world. This is extraordinarily interesting when you observe how for the past 2000 years the various Christian churches and
denominations have relentlessly made other places and cities and nations their centre. E.g. Rome, Canterbury, Geneva, Plymouth...etc etc?
But so far as salvation-history is concerned, Jerusalem has ever been the centre and focal point for the Lord's redemptive action. The Lamb of God was prophetically offered up and resurrected through Abraham and Isaac where Jerusalem would one day stand, with the Old Covenant Temple at its heart.
"Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you." (Genesis 22.2)
"Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David." (2 Chronicles 3.1)
It was in Jerusalem that the Lord Jesus paid our redemption price in full with His own shed Blood. It was there that He proved beyond all shadow of doubt that He was truly who He said He was by His resurrection from the dead.
"Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow and the third day I reach My goal. Nevertheless I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem." (Luke 13.32-33)
It was in Jerusalem that the New Testament Community was born through the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the initial handful of Jewish followers of Jesus. To Jerusalem He will return, and there occupy His millennial Throne "to rule all the nations with a rod of iron"; the "King over all the earth" who will "teach us His laws, and we will obey them ... settle international disputes; all the nations will convert their weapons of war into implements of peace." (Revelation 12.5; Zechariah 14.9; Isaiah 2.3-4)
Before that Day there must occur at the very least the determined beginnings of a massive realignment of the whole Christian Community with God's geographic purposes. I.e. Jerusalem must increasingly be acknowledged doctrinally and organisationally as the centre of the world and our spiritual and physical capital, headquarters and base. Such a
massive realignment will finally be enforced anyway by the King during the time of His actual reign.
"And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts (armies of Heaven), there will be no rain on them." (Zechariah 14.17)
"Furthermore, I withheld the rain from you..Then I would send the rain on one city and on another city I would not send rain; one part would be rained on, while the part not rained on would dry up." (Amos 4.7)
"I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it (My vineyard)." (Isaiah 5.6)
We should not be even slightly startled nor perturbed if immediately before His return the King begins to withhold His rain (natural and spiritual) from those of His People (especially their organisations) who stiffneckedly refuse to accept His earthly capital city as their own. And contrarywise, those who embrace the momentary humiliation and
inconvenience of not being the false centre of everything (ecclesiastical power, status and wealth), can anticipate the rain of His presence and power in unprecedented abundance.
"If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, then I will give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit."(Leviticus 26.3-5)
